WAZER Prepare design

Follow this step by step guide on how to prepare your file for WAZER:

These steps can be performed on your personal laptop/computer, but we have also have computers available at the FABLAB you can use for this.

Export file from Vector or CAD modelling software as .dxf or .svg

Login to the public account of FABLAB Enschede for material settings.

Account credentials WAM
Username:	fablabenschede
Password:	fablabWazer1!

Prepare design for cutting:

1. File:

Import your file (.dxf or .svg) You can use the split function if your design is positioned outside of the cutting area.

This way you can position the parts differently, you can also do this beforehand while preparing your file.

2. Scale and Position:

Here you can drag your design in the top left corner, if you select it you can change the rotation – position – scale – size of your design.

3. Material:

Select the material and thickness you want to use for your design.

The materials FABLAB provides have already been put in here if you use the public WAM account of FABLAB Enschede.

4. Cutting path:

The WAZER has a kerf or Cut width of 1,2mm.

This makes it important to choose the correct cutting path to ensure your sizing is correct.

When selecting your design you have multiple options: Outside – Centerline – Inside. (See image below for explanation)

Most often the outside cut is giving your preferred result.

5. Tabs and Leads:

Tabs will help keep your cut design stay put in the plate of material while cutting.

This way your part will not move in the machine. Please keep tabs enabled.

It will automatically place tabs on your design, but you can change/move them by clicking or holding them.

We advise to place the tabs at places that are easy to reach in the post-processing.

The tab size depends on the thickness of your material, we advise to make it at least 1mm wide when using 1 to 2 mm aluminium.

Make sure Leads are Enabled. The machine needs to pierce through the material to start a cutting line.

With Leads Enabled it will start cutting outside of your part, making sure the larger pierce hole is not visible in your final part.

6. Cut:

Select the Coarse option for cutting quality here, the quality difference between coarse and fine is not noticeable.

The finer options take longer to cut without a precision or major detail increase.

When you select an option it will show you the cutting details including the estimated time it will take to cut and how much abrasive it will use.

7. Generate Job File:

The final step, this will create a .gcode file you can put on the WAZER SD card that is in the WAZER Desktop machine.

(Make sure you put the WAZER SD card in the machine before turning it on, or else it will not work)